When Linda Burr moved with her family to Farmington in 1984, it was the infectious attitude of her mail carrier, Mary Hawkins, that helped launch a 27-year career — and love affair with public service. Burr wouldn’t change a day of it.

On Aug. 22, the 60-year-old Victor rural route mail carrier will make one last trek around Route No. 4 —the 73-mile path she’s traveled six days a week for the last 20 years to fill mailboxes at 560 homes and 30 businesses.

What has kept her fired up through the years? Mary Hawkins gets a good share of the credit.

“Mary was such a sweet lady and she just loved her job,” said Burr. “She was always so pleasant when I would come to the mailbox. She’d always smile and talk to the kids. She’s been my inspiration.”

Now retired after 30 years of service, Hawkins was the only female mail carrier in Farmington back in 1984. One day at the mailbox she encouraged Burr to take the rural carrier test, and within a few months, then-Victor Postmaster Bernard McCarthy gave her a job. The rest is history.

“We were always bumping into each other in this small brick building that was where Mead Square Park is right now,” Burr said.

When Burr started in 1987, there were only four rural carriers and two city carriers who served fewer than 7,000 Victor residents. That number has almost doubled today to eight rural carriers and three city carriers who deliver to more than 14,000 residents.

Rewards

The real payoff, Burr said, has definitely been interacting with the people and the businesses she serves.

“I’ve been doing the same route for pretty close to 20 years now,” said Burr. “You see the people move into their houses, and the babies being born, and the next thing you know, you see them waiting at the bus stop and coming home from school.”

Burr is radiant when she speaks of seeing neighborhood children waiting excitedly for her mail truck to arrive.

“Their eyes are so bright,” she said. “I’ll tell them not to get too close to the mailbox or the curb. They get so anxious and they’re so cute.”

Another reward, Burr said, was knowing she was getting important mail to the people on her route — not just bills, but personal, handwritten letters, Christmas cards and gifts.

“it’s so much more to have something real in your hand," she said.

Page 2 of 4 - Weather woes

The worst weather Burr recalls driving through was the ice storm of 1991. And there have been other severe snow days where road emergencies have been declared. Often mail carriers will try to push through on their routes, she said, which is always “a little nerve-rattling.”

“A lot of times people don’t get their mailboxes plowed out,” said Burr, “or if the road’s been plowed, the snow might be pushed up against their box. There are times we have to bypass a box if it’s too hard to get to.”

In the summertime the opposite is true — it’s the extreme heat that causes problems.

“Our loving term for our mail trucks is our ‘toaster ovens,’” said Burr. It’s at least 10 degrees hotter inside that truck than it is outside. There is no air conditioning — just a little five-inch fan, but it doesn’t do that much good. I drink a lot of water, and hope that someone comes along with a popsicle.”

Burr remembers one scorcher of a day when a customer — a frail woman in her 90s — hobbled all the way down her driveway, glass of cold water in one hand and cane in the other, to offer her a drink.

‘Special’ deliveries

People send crazy things through the mail, and Burr has transported her share of them.

“I delivered truck tires once and had to roll them up the hill,” said Burr. “They were heavy and they kept rolling back down.”

Other odd things she’s delivered were live tadpoles, live bees, aquarium fish, cremation ashes, and car parts — including bumpers.

“Sometimes you deliver some pretty heavy things,” Burr said. “Sometimes packages will leak. One time someone sent a jar of pickles and it broke and leaked all over. Another person sent Waterford crystal from England with no packing material at all.”

That didn’t make the trip in one piece, she said.

“Last month someone mailed a coconut from Hawaii by writing the address with a marker and affixing postage,” Burr said.

Seabury Lane resident Russ Kimble will never forget Burr’s service which went above and beyond the call of duty last winter.

“I had a knee replacement in January,” Kimble said. “For about a month in the wintertime she would drive into my driveway in all sorts of weather and hand deliver the mail. She did everything except pay the bills,” he joked.

Page 3 of 4 - Kimble has long since recovered, and laughs about the fact that although Burr still delivers his mail, now he has to go out and get it.

Kimble said he’s had dozens of mail carriers over the years, and a lot of them have been great.

“But this woman here — she’s been extra special,” said Kimble.

USPS changes

“With automation, the carriers spend less time sorting mail in the office and more time delivering mail,” Mihalitsas said. “Deliveries per routes have increased, and there is a higher volume of packages delivered.”

But even with automation, Burr said, mail carriers still have to pick up every piece of mail and handle it.

Another change that rural route carriers welcomed was the switch from driving their own personal vehicles — all controlled from the left side — to right hand drive delivery vehicles. Burr remembers the contortions it took to get the job done.

“We used to drive stretching our leg and arm to operate the vehicle while our right arm is reaching out of the vehicle to put the mail in the mailbox. I didn’t think I could do it.”

Burr said her union struck a deal with the Post Office to phase in right-hand drive vehicles from city mail carriers.

“It was a slow process,” Burr said. “I was so happy when I got a right-hand drive vehicle. The last carrier in Victor got his truck about 10 years ago. ”

The truth about mail carriers

All jokes aside, postal workers take their jobs very seriously. Still, misconceptions abound.

“The stereotypes portrayed on TV like Cliff Claven or Newman couldn't be further from the truth,” said Mihalitsas. “Postal employees, especially carriers, are the caretakers of the communities they serve. Often we hear stories of carriers helping lost children or an elderly person who is sick or injured.”

Burr said she wishes folks knew just how hard postal employees work.

“People are always surprised that I start at 7:30 in the morning,” Burr said. “That involves sorting the mail into individual spaces, packing it up, and going through parcels.”

People may order things online, Burr said, but a great deal still comes through the United States Postal Service.

“We have deliveries every day from UPS and FedEx and then we take it out,” said Burr, who added she’s worked 14-hour days, especially near the holidays.

Dangers on the job

In addition to being “caretakers of the community,” modern mail carriers have been thrust into a role of protecting the public — and themselves — from potential dangers. It’s a sobering responsibility.

“With the terrorism threat we have regulations and standards, safety talks on how to identify parcels that look suspicious,” said Burr, who added that mail carriers are trained to watch for parcels with handwritten addresses, without return addresses, or that unidentified leaks.